festival
by PerfumedWithObsession
Summary: Chase and Rory travel to a small town in Oregon to see the hops and heratige festival.


**So every year my small town in Oregon has this celebration called 'the hops and heritage festival' at the end of September. The town is named Independence and the amphitheater is a real thing. You guys should totally check it out.**

"My mom can't come," I said a second after I got off the phone with her. I shifted my weight in my seat and glanced out of the passenger side window of Chase's Charger. Almost hidden by the branches of a large tree was a sign reading that we had just left Salem, Oregon.

"Wait, your mom is the whole reason why we're going to this weird celebration." Chase said. "I still don't understand why we couldn't have stayed at EAS, or even in LA."

"What do you have against being outdoors for just one night? Not even the whole night. Just until like ten or eleven." I exclaimed.

"Oh, I've got nothing against being outside. It's just, this is Oregon." Chase explained.

"Yeah, so?" I couldn't believe that he was about to make us go all of the way back to LA (yes, LA, I was not about to give him the satisfaction of going back to EAS) just because he didn't like a state. Yep, that's what I get for dating Chase.

"Rory, Oregon is known for it's rain." He shook at the mention of rain. That is probably why he fits in so well in LA. Rain is practically unheard of there.

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah, so?" he repeated, not believing that I had just said that. What I couldn't believe was that he was making such a big deal over rain. Actually, I could believe it. I mean, it was Chase. "It could start raining at any moment,"

"It's the middle of September. Summer hasn't even ended yet and it won't for another month." I exclaimed, exasperated.

"What does summer have to do with anything?"

"Nothing." I admitted. "But look, not a cloud in the sky." he had to admit that I was right about that. The sky was a startlingly pale blue.

Chase didn't say anything after that, a tell tale sign that I had won this argument. I had better celebrate while I still could. Me winning was a very rare occurrence.

Slowly, the trees began to dissipate, houses popping up in their places. Off to the side of the road stood an old side reading, Enter Independence Oregon. Population, 12,652. That may have been the smallest town that I had ever been in.

The closer we got to the small town and the park, the more cars we saw parked at the side of the road.

Me, being the amazingly stubborn person that I was, didn't notice all of the warning signs.

"Rory, there is no parking." Chase finally pointed out as we drove through another neighborhood full of parked cars.

"There was parking," I corrected. "We were just too busy arguing to leave early enough,"

It took us a total of ten minutes to find parking.

"So," Chase began. " How do we find our way back to the park? I'm pretty sure I saw a taco cart, and I am starving." I rolled my eyes. Of course Chase had only really noticed the food. Not the fountain, or the live music, or the thousands of people from all over the Willamette Valley. Just the food. I would love to say that I was surprised.

"I think we can just follow the crowd." I answered. People were coming from all around us, all drawn to the festival.

And so began our ten minute walk.

The closer we got to the amphitheater, the louder the music became. The band that they had hired was some local country band. I have to admit, they weren't that good. But then again, we were in a small town in Oregon

Elaborate space set-ups had been made hours ago, so Chase and I were left scrambling for whatever spots on the grass were left. In the end, our spot was decent enough.

"See Chase, this isn't so bad," I said. We sat side by side on our picnic blanket.

"Fine, it's not half-bad. Just, don't tell your mom I said that," I laughed and kissed him lightly on the lips. Pulling away from him seconds later, I layed down on the blanket, pulling him down with me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in again for a kiss.

"There you guys are. We've been looking all over for you," we hastily broke apart and looked up to glare at Dani. She completely ignored our glares and continued. "I can't believe we couldn't find you,"

"We?" I asked, pushing myself off of Chase to sit up.

"My mom. She's looking for you guys down by the food carts near the river," Chase and I both burst out laughing and Dani grinned. "I'll admit, not my best idea,"

"So, why are you guys here?" Chase asked, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Oh, yeah," Dani said. "My mom has a sudden fashion shoot in france this week.

"All week?" Chase asked, horrified at the thought of having to try on clothing non-stop for a week.

"The designer wants her to do his full fall line," Dani explained.

"And dad's still in Nepal shooting his new movie," I said slowly, coming to a realization. "They want us to watch you, don't they." Dani nodded her head.

"Why can't Rory's mom watch you? She's much more qualified." Chase asked.

"Movie re-shoots,"

"What about Amy?"

"First of all, Amy is Maggie's assistant. Second of all, Amy's with Maggie." She answered, rolling her eyes. She reminded me a lot of myself when she did that.

"What about Lena?" Chase asked desperately.

"You want me to stay with the best friend of my sister, rather then my sister," Dani said.

"Chase pretended to think about it for a second, "Pretty much,"

"I'm going to call Brie and tell her you found us," I said, grabbing my carryall purse and pulling my phone out of it's pouch.

"Hi Rory," Brie answered.

"Hey, Dani found us."

"Oh, she did. Yay! Is it alright if she stays with you guys for a week?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

"Even with Chase," Brie asked, surprised. Chase must have heard her because he began to frantically shake his head.

"Yeah he's fine with it."

We have gone to the festival every year since then.

 **I really hope you liked it!**


End file.
